


A Daughter's Survival

by Chokolatte (ChokolatteJedi)



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: Alternate Timeline, Drama, F/M, Future Fic, Gen, Post-Canon, Wordcount: 1.000-5.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-04-09
Updated: 2005-04-09
Packaged: 2017-10-09 15:30:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/88894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChokolatteJedi/pseuds/Chokolatte
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sesshoumaru wants to save the one human who cared for him: his daughter Rin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Daughter's Survival

"Have you figured it out yet?" Sesshoumaru growled into his cell phone.

"Hai, Lord Sesshoumaru-Sama."

"Good. Get it here by nightfall." He flipped the cell phone closed and stormed out of his office. He paced up and down the hall, checking his watch. _Barely noon. I knew I was giving them too much time._ He growled low in his throat and slammed back into his office. He sank into his chair and glared at his computer screen, daring it to comment on his agitation.

"For goodness sake, Sesshoumaru, calm down!" Kagura swept in with an armful of fresh flowers, which she deposited in a vase, removing the older ones. "What can possibly have you so upset?"

"This Sesshoumaru is not upset." He replied, kneading his claws in the fine old mahogany desk-top.

"Clearly." She replied acerbically, eyeing the scratches before sighing and leaving the room.

Sesshoumaru leaned back in his chair, remembering.

"_F-father." Rin's voice was weak as she struggled to sit up. Her snow-white hair was tacky with sweat and her breath caught in her chest. Wrinkled hands pushed against Kagura's help. "Alone." Her voice was gravely with age and harsh from the liquid in her lungs. Kagura quietly closed the door, leaving her mate and adopted daughter alone._

"_Rin." He helped her up, holding a cup of water to her parched lips._

"_Fa-ther. I wanted to… thank you. For taking me in as a-a child." He offered her more water and she sipped at it before continuing. "You saved me, so many times. Thank you, papa." Her eyes closed and her head fell onto his shoulder. He laid her back down on the bed, pulling up her blanket. He and Kagura watched over her until morning, when she sighed one last time._

"_Nooooooooo!" Sesshoumaru howled, rocking back on his heels. He was amazed to find moisture on his cheeks. He hadn't cried since his mother died, and he had been 10 then. Why he should be crying for this human child, now an old woman?_

_Because she was the first one to trust him, to love him, since his parents died._

That day changed Sesshoumaru, visibly and internally. He stopped trying to kill Inuyasha, for one thing. Loosing Rin had shown him that he could not afford to loose any other member of his family, even a baka half-breed. Inuyasha had been startled by the change, but presumably his miko had talked him around. While they were not friends, they were closer than they had ever been in the 275 years since the hanyou's birth.

He had also stopped killing every human who crossed his path. And his relationship with Kagura had grown even stronger. They hadn't wanted another child while Rin was with them, but later they had decided to start a family and he now had a son and a daughter. They, of course, were about 20 years old now in human appearance and had moved to college and homes of their own.

\--o--

But still, deep in his heart, Sesshoumaru longed for the child who he could no longer be a father to. _"You saved me, so many times. Thank you, papa."_ But he hadn't, in the end, been able to save her from death, from her human frailty. He had failed her when it mattered the very most.

Now it was known as pneumonia, the illness that caused the hacking cough and horrible fever. Sesshoumaru had wanted to bring her back, then and there, but he knew that she would just return to the old age and the horrible pain she had suffered in the weeks before she died.

The ringing telephone cut through his reminiscing, but it was only a client for Kagura. He didn't envy the witnesses and other lawyers who had to stand up to his ferocious mate. He paced away another hour, often pausing before the fireplace to look up at Tenseiga. _It couldn't do anything either. He had to sit there and listen to the soul stealers taking Rin's soul. Unable, for the first time since receiving his father's fang, to stop them._

He glanced out the window again. It was nearing dark. _He's late._ Sesshoumaru was jamming in the digits for the lab when the doorbell rang. He bounded down the stairs, pulling open one of the massive oak doors and all but dragging the scientist up into his office. "Well?" He demanded after shutting the door.

"Here, Mr. Inutaisho." He pulled a small bottle out of his briefcase and handed it over.

Sesshoumaru grabbed it. "Explain it."

The other youkai cleared his throat and began. "You wanted to prolong the life of a human, to make it closer in length to ours. You must add a drop of your blood to this vial and then give it to the human. They must drink the entire thing. If they drink it, they will be recognized as being under your protection, just as your mate is. However, the implication of mating will not apply. Also, the drinker will have a lifespan equivalent to a hanyou. It was the best we could do. It is much longer than a normal human lifespan, though not quite as long as a youkai's."

Sesshoumaru inclined his head when the scientist finished his explanation. "What of the poison in my blood?"

"The potion will cancel out the acidity when the human drinks it, but afterwards he or she will have the same immunity to your poison that you and your mate do."

"Is that everything?"

"Yes, my Lord."

"Very well, you may leave now. Good work."

With as much speed as he could muster without giving offence, the youkai sped out of the house of the tai-youkai. He didn't breathe easily until his car was down the mansion's impressive driveway and out on the street. The Inu no Taisho was a hard man to predict. One never knew when he would be pleased or angry with what was said. They had worked long hours trying to improve the lifespan of the potion, but it wasn't powerful enough to do more than give the drinker the longevity of a meager hanyou. He was just very glad that Lord Sesshoumaru had not been upset. Glad and lucky.

\--o--

Sesshoumaru wasted no time. The scientist wasn't even out of the house before he vaulted out through the window and raced off towards the miko's shrine. He arrived five minutes later and straitened his suit before knocking on the door.

"Coming!" A voice called. He heard her run down the stairs and felt the slight probe of her powers. "Sesshoumaru?" She cried, throwing open the door. "Please come in!"

He sniffed as he entered. "Home alone? Where is that baka brother of mine?"

"Working late at the office. Mamma is at the store. Souta is out with Shiori again. Ah, to be sixteen again." She sighed melodramatically.

He snorted. She was only three years older than her brother and the bat-hanyou girl.

"Stop kicking me." She rubbed her dissented belly, glaring at it before grinning at her brother in law. So, what did you need Sesshoumaru?"

"I… I need to ask you a favor."

Her eyes betrayed just a hint of surprise before she schooled herself. "No problem."

"I need you to go back through the well. I need you to find Rin and give her something for me. While running he had sliced his cheek with his claw and caught a few drops of blood in the vial. The small cut had healed already. Now he pulled it out of his sash and gave it to the miko. "She must drink it, all of it. And then you must bring her through the well."

She had been looking thoughtfully at the bottle, but at his last words she gasped lightly and looked into his eyes. "What?"

He had thought it out carefully. Rin could not exist twice in one place. He had had scientists explain that concept to him many times. He could not change the past, but he could change the future. By bringing Rin through the well, she would grow up in this time, along with Kagome's expectant child and his son's first-born, Izumimaru. She would live in this modern era, surrounded by family, instead of dying in the feudal era. "Make sure she drinks all of it, and then bring her through the well."

She nodded. "I will. As soon as Inuyasha comes home we'll go."

He rose and walked to the door. "Thank you."

Sesshoumaru ran back to the mansion, heart racing. _If she can do it, I can really change things. I can save her, this time._ He leapt back in through his office window. He had just poured himself a small glass of sake when Kagura came in. "Coming to bed?" she asked, kissing him lightly on the cheek.

He was about to say no, but his common sense interfered. Inuyasha probably would not be home any time soon, so he and Kagome would not leave till the morning. He might as well get sleep now, while he could. He rose and wrapped one arm around Kagura's shoulders. "Good night dear."

\--o--

When Sesshoumaru awoke that morning, he was sickeningly disoriented. His mind reeled with images, memories.

_His baka brother teaching Rin to climb trees. He supposed she spent so much time with him in the beginning because they had both lived as peasants._

_Kagome spending hours with the child, teaching her to read and write._

_Rin, falling out of the tree in the backyard and spraining her wrist. Kagura and Kagome keeping him from using Tokijin on his baka half-brother for it._

_Her first sleepover party._

_Her first birthday party in this time, when her older brother, Shio, had given her a new songbook._

_Rin sitting at the piano, practicing before her school concert._

_Dancing together at her school's father daughter dance last winter._

_Rin and Kagura making chocolate chip cookies for the new year's festival._

_Rin baby-sitting four-year old Zumi for her older brother._

_The fancy dinner in town to celebrate her most recent report card from her private middle school._

_Her most recent birthday, when she turned 13 and became a teenager._

_Rin sitting on the porch railing with Jaken, swinging her feet and watching the sunset._

Sesshoumaru's confusion ebbed as the memories began to order themselves. Rin had been living in the future for three years now, if his rush of new memories was correct. _But that would mean… she did it. Kagome and Inuyasha went back last night and brought her to this time three years ago._ He resisted the urge to run to the miko's shrine and confirm it, and contented himself with going downstairs to make breakfast. He had just finished when a smiling Rin entered the room and grabbed a box of cereal.

Seeing him, she ran to the table and flung her arms around his neck before grabbing a bowl and spoon out of the cupboard. "Morning Papa!"

_Papa. His older children had both called him "Father;" Rin was the only one to ever call him Papa. _"Good morning, Rin."

Rin added milk to her cereal and started gulping it down. "Aunt Kagome asked if I could go shopping for baby things with her this morning. She said we'd get lunch and then she'd drop me off at Shio's to baby-sit Zumi. May I go with her, please?"

"Have you finished your homework for Monday?" It sounded odd, to his ears, to ask the question, yet it was correct; he had asked so many times before in the last three years.

"Hai."

Another rush of memories hit Sesshoumaru, these ones from an age long past.

"_Rin, we're leaving."_

"_Hai! Come on Jaken-sama!" She ran after him, arms spread, flowers trailing from her hair._

"_Ah! Sesshoumaru-Sama! Wait for me!" The toad waved his staff as he hurried to catch up._

"_Come on Jaken-Sama! You can eat flies later!"_

"_This Jaken does not eat flies!"_

"_He does so, Rin saw him!"_

_Jaken stopped running and squawked in indignation. "What- I- you human child! What would you know?"_

"_I know that Jaken-sama eats flies!"_

_Sesshoumaru hid his smile as he called back, "Jaken, hurry up."_

"_Ah! Yes Sesshoumaru-Sama!"_

Sesshoumaru shook his head and tried to remember what had been asked. Ah yes, she wanted to go out with Kagome before babysitting her nephew, Izumimaru. "All right then. But be home in time for dinner."

She scraped her bowl clean and put it in the dishwasher. "Hai" Then she kissed his cheek and skipped out of the kitchen.

Sesshoumaru rubbed his cheek and smiled. He had done it, he had changed the past. He had saved her.

**Author's Note:**

> "Shio" means "Tide"
> 
> "Izumi" means "Spring" (like of water, not the season) and the Maru is to honor Sesshy.


End file.
